The original love letter to Dark Souls and its extraordinary fan community gets a deluxe hardcover edition.
All of this happened because of you!
Jason (on behalf of T&F)
You have our permission to start getting excited :)
Jason (on behalf of T&F)
Our printer sent us some footage of their recent progress assembling You Died so we cut it into a video for you. (Now I desperately want to fall down a research rabbit hole to find out how all this incredible machinery was invented. Rube Goldberg would be proud.)
Anyway, enjoy the repetitive, hypnotic journey of these piles of paper!
If you enjoy this glimpse behind the scenes, consider following the T&F YouTube channel after you get done watching!
Fond regards,
Jason (on behalf of Tune & Fairweather)
Watch the video update:
- Regrettably, we will miss the April shipping ETA that we quoted in the Kickstarter. We pushed hard to meet our original deadline but it wasn't to be.
This is not solely due to COVID-19. We weren't fully satisfied with the depth of the deboss impression on the first cover stamping test and went back and forth with the printer for several weeks exploring alternative options. In the end we replaced the magnesium stamping brasses with bronze ones and this created an impression that was much closer to our initial vision.
- Because our Italian printer requires the assistance of third-party vendors to produce the leather editions – and those vendors are currently closed due to health-and-safety precautions – the Gravelord Servant Edition is temporarily on hold.
Since this only affects a small number of backers, we will proceed with producing and shipping the cloth editions (which our printer is able to fully produce in-house) to backers. We expect the binding of these to be completed within the next two weeks. We will let you know when they are in transit to our fulfilment warehouses in Ireland and the United States.
- The vendor that is screen-printing the limited-edition You Died poster for us is also temporarily closed due to COVID-19 safety measures. This item is on hold until the printer re-opens.
- The carpenter who is building the wooden coffins for the Gravelord Servant Edition is struggling to get joinery pieces for the box clasp from vendors due to (yet again) business closures. His engraver is also deemed a "nonessential business" by the lights of the Irish health authorities.
Thank you SO much for your patience. We can't wait to get this book into your hands.
Stay safe out there,
Jason (on behalf of Tune & Fairweather)
With my two kids home during the ongoing school closure, I invited them to participate in the latest video update. It was hilarious just how excited my daughter was about the prospect of appearing on YouTube. Tune & Fairweather's maiden cohort of unpaid interns. I think they did great, hope you agree.
OK, let's bring you up to speed on where the project stands...
We've reached a new stage in the book-printing journey. Our printer has sent test runs of the stamping and foil cover treatments. There is lots to like, however, the existing tests are not hitting our quality bar.
We stressed to the printer early on that we required a deep impression on the debossed cover pattern. The impression on the tests is quite shallow, not as tactile or pronounced as we had desired. Additionally, there are some issues with excess foil spilling out of the stamped grooves on the genuine leather 'Gravelord Servant' edition. We have requested another round of tests before we give our printer the green light to proceed.
The printer is sourcing a partner to help them resolve the issue, however that vendor will not be available until next week due to a COVID-19 closure. This will introduce a minor delay, but we hope you will afford us this extra time so that we can deliver on our original vision for the You Died product.
Here are some photos of the stamping and foil tests for the different versions we are producing:
[Note: the final version will be black, the red leather was used for the test because the printer already had it in stock.]
That's all for now. If you have any questions, let us know. And thanks for trusting us to deliver a book worthy of the passion we all have for Dark Souls. It's shaping up to be something truly special.
Fond regards,
Jason (on behalf of Tune & Fairweather)